ABSTRACT
Consulting service revenues recently surpassed audit revenues as the primary income source for the largest accounting firms. Since SOX limits the provision of consulting services to audit ...clients, this shift in revenues implies that firms and many clients likely choose between audit and consulting relationships. We explore the implications of this by developing and validating a measure of client-level consulting needs that can likely be fulfilled by accounting firms, which we refer to as “consulting opportunities.” As predicted, we find that consulting opportunities relate positively to auditor switches. We also find that consulting opportunities relate negatively to subsequent Big 4 auditor selection—the firms focusing most on consulting—but we fail to find evidence that consulting opportunities relate to deteriorations in audit quality. Together, our results suggest that legislation limiting firms' ability to deliver consulting services to audit clients may have reduced audit market concentration without discernably impacting quality.
Data Availability: All data used are publicly available from sources cited in the text.
In this article, the association between the strength of information technology controls over management information systems and the subsequent forecasting ability of the information produced by ...those systems is investigated. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 highlights the importance of information system controls by requiring management and auditors to report on the effectiveness of internal controls over the financial reporting component of the firm ' s management information systems. We hypothesize and find evidence that management forecasts are less accurate for firms with information technology material weaknesses in their financial reporting system than the forecasts for firms that do not have information technology material weaknesses. In addition, we examine three dimensions of information technology material weaknesses: data processing integrity, system access and security, and system structure and usage. We find that the association with forecast accuracy appears to be strongest for IT control weaknesses most directly related to data processing integrity. Our results support the contention that information technology controls, as apart of the management information system, affect the quality of the information produced by the system. We discuss the complementary nature of our findings to the information and systems quality literature.
SYNOPSIS
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether SOX Section 404 material weaknesses manifest in real earnings management behavior. The empirical findings indicate that, compared to ...companies with effective internal controls, companies with existing material weaknesses in their internal controls engage in more manipulation of real activities (particularly inventory overproduction). This implies that the weak commitment by management to provide effective internal control system and high-quality financial information relates to a tendency to use real earnings management methods. Moreover, we find evidence suggesting that companies employ real earnings management (overproduction and reduction of discretionary expenses) after disclosing previous year's material weaknesses. We conjecture that the public disclosure of material weaknesses induces management to strive to mitigate the expected negative reactions of stakeholders to the disclosure by engaging in real earnings management, which is not easily detected or constrained by outsiders. Overall, this study suggests that material weaknesses in internal controls signal an environment where management is more inclined to employ real earnings management.
Purpose
Research investigating the association between religiosity and earnings management has concentrated on accruals-based earnings management, relying heavily on society’s religiosity, but it has ...neglected the interaction between religiosity and formal monitoring mechanisms. This study aims to examine how the religiosity and accounting expertise traits of top leaders are associated with real earnings management (REM) and how they interact to eliminate these practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of 943 year-observations from more religious settings, this paper collects data for four measures of REM, and for religiosity and accounting expertise of audit committee (AC) chair and chief executive officer (CEO). Multivariate regression is used to test the study hypotheses.
Findings
The findings are consistent with the predictions that religious top leaders are not associated with lower REM, while top leaders with accounting expertise, in some cases, are associated with lower REM. This paper also finds that a leader with religious belief and accounting expertise dramatically lowers REM. These findings are robust under a battery of sensitive analyzes. In an additional analysis, this paper observes the interaction effect between these two traits is strengthened if the board chair is religious, and persists even for larger firms or those with a highly concentrated ownership structure.
Originality/value
The paper provides evidence that may serve a variety of decision-makers. It is the first to show that the interaction between religiosity and expertise is crucial in curbing REM. It also provides the first evidence for the role of the AC chair in relation to REM.
This study investigates the role that a firm's internal audit function (IAF) plays in the disclosure of material weaknesses reported under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (U.S. Congress ...2002). Using data from 214 firms, we examine the relation between material weakness (MW) disclosures and various IAF attributes and activities. Our results indicate that MW disclosures are negatively associated with the education level of the IAF and the extent to which the IAF incorporates quality assurance techniques into fieldwork, audits activities related to financial reporting, and monitors the remediation of previously identified control problems. The timing of Section 404 work and the nature of follow-up monitoring suggests that these aspects of IAF quality help prevent MWs from occurring. We find that MW disclosures are positively associated with the IAF practice of grading audit engagements and external-internal auditor coordination, suggesting that these activities increase the effectiveness of Section 404 compliance processes.
Do fees for non-audit services compromise auditor's independence and result in reduced quality of financial reporting? The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 presumes that some fees do and bans these ...services for audit clients. Also, some registrants voluntarily restrict their audit firms from providing legally permitted non-audit services. Assuming that restatements of previously issued financial statements reflect low-quality financial reporting, we investigate detailed fees for restating registrants for 1995 to 2000 and for similar nonrestating registrants. We do not find a statistically significant positive association between fees for either financial information systems design and implementation or internal audit services and restatements, but we do find some such association for unspecified non-audit services and restatements. We find a significant negative association between tax services fees and restatements, consistent with net benefits from acquiring tax services from a registrant's audit firm. The significant associations are driven primarily by larger registrants.
Costs to Comply with SOX Section 404 Krishnan, Jagan; Rama, Dasaratha; Zhang, Yinghong
Auditing : a journal of practice and theory,
05/2008, Volume:
27, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This study examines companies' costs to comply with SOX 404 and identifies factors that are associated with these costs. SOX 404 costs can be classified into three categories: internal labor costs, ...external consulting and technology expenses, and auditor attestation charges. While prior research has examined audit fees associated with SOX 404, we examine both total costs and auditor attestation costs associated with SOX 404. Based on a sample of companies that voluntarily disclosed SOX 404 cost information during the period from January 2003 to September 2005, we find that the mean (median) total compliance costs for Section 404 is $2.2 ($1.2) million. Regression analyses indicate that the total compliance costs are positively associated with firm size, the presence of material internal control weaknesses, the cost of setting up new computer systems and establishing formal internal control policies, the involvement of large auditors, the appointment of new CEOs, and are negatively associated with firms in regulated industries and firms that raised new financing. Firm size and the incidence of material weaknesses are also the drivers of SOX 404 audit costs, one component of total SOX 404 costs.
The study reported herein examines the impact of two central corporate governance mechanisms (internal audit function quality and board of directors’ quality) on the incidence of earnings management. ...Unlike most prior studies in the area, focused mainly on US firms, this study looks at European firms that are cross‐listed in the US and covers a long time span – before and after major changes were implemented in corporate governance policies (Sarbanes‐Oxley Act in the US and the 8th Company Law Directive in the European Union). Using novel and comprehensive measurement approaches for internal audit function quality and board of directors’ quality, we find that both mechanisms have a negative direct effect on the incidence of earnings management, while their interactive effect is positive. A longitudinal analysis of both mechanisms also reveals that internal audit function quality and the quality of boards of directors have increased significantly since the policy changes.
The study examines the impact of internal audit function quality and board of directors’ quality on the incidence of earnings management. We find that both corporate governance mechanisms have a negative direct effect on earnings management, but their interactive effect is positive.
ABSTRACT
This paper investigates the effects of regulatory interventions on contracting relationships within firms by examining the impacts of the Sarbanes–Oxley (SOX) Act on CEO compensation. Using ...panel data of the S&P 1500 firms, it quantifies welfare gains from a principal–agent model with hidden information and hidden actions. It finds that SOX: (1) reduced the conflict of interest between shareholders and their CEOs, mainly by reducing shareholder loss from CEOs deviating from their goal of expected value maximization; (2) increased the cost of agency, or the risk premium CEOs are paid to align their interests with those of shareholders; (3) increased administrative costs in the primary sector (which includes utilities and energy) but the effect in the other two broadly defined sectors, services and consumer goods, was more nuanced; and (4) had no effect on the attitude of CEOs toward risk.
The aim of the article is to draw attention to the diversity in the statutory bodies of public companies in Poland in 2010-2019. The article is based on the analysis of empirical results collected by ...the author and the analysis of a critical literature review. The issue of gender differentiation has been present in the labor market for several years and it is not only a problem for Poland, but is also raised by the European Union. The author also became interested in this topic in the context of women in high positions of listed companies in the last ten years, i.e. from 2010.
